Right now, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office has everything from bikes, to cell phones, to Michael Kors merchandise, to a wedding ring, to antique wooden skis. And it’s all got to go.
At its meeting Wednesday, the Summit County Council approved a plan to dispose of that property, whether by donating, reusing or destroying it.
Some divisions of the sheriff’s office can make use of the seized property.
The Corrections and Jail Division has dibs on much of the clothing for inmates reentering society. It will also take some tools for the working inmate crew and jail garden.
The Investigations Division will use some of the electronics for training purposes, and the Patrol Division will use seized ammunition for training too.
The list of property includes guns, which Sheriff Frank Smith said will be destroyed.
In the past, the rest of the property has been sold at auction, but there is a higher administrative cost to setting that up. Evidence technicians have already undertaken efforts to find the original owner.
“And there’s third party vendors that do it, but again, then somebody's profiting off somebody else's misery,” Smith said.
The sheriff said he will be looking into donating the items not up for destruction or reuse, which are mostly bicycles and electronics.
The plan is to use a lot of the bicycles to set up a bike rodeo for disadvantaged kids.
“That's a tradition for them,” Council Chair Roger Armstrong said. “They take some of these bicycles that come in, they have a bike rodeo for kids. And, at the end of it, they donate bikes to the kids.”
If someone needs to reclaim property that’s been seized or found by deputies during an investigation, there may still be time to contact the sheriff’s office.
Click here to see the list of the property.